My Adventures in the Lone Star State

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All Fenced In

By now, those of you who follow my blog are familiar with Dos Arbolitos. That’s the name my wife and I gave to our little tract of land in the Big Bend Valley section of Terlingua Ranch. It’s really too small to be called a ranch or even a ranchette for that matter. But to us, it’s our small slice of heaven on earth.Purchased less than a year ago, we have made every ten-hour drive from our home in Katy to Dos Arbolitos count. This month my fencing friends and I made the trek to far west Texas with our supply laden trailer in tow to finish fencing Dos Arbolitos. We departed Katy at 2:00 AM and arrived at the front gate before noon.We wasted no time because we only had a day and a half to get the job done. So, we set up camp and then each took ownership of specific tasks and got to work. My wife Cheryl and I had put in all but four of the remaining cedar posts on our trip to Dos Arbolitos in November.Our first order of business was to put in the remaining cedar posts as well as almost a hundred t-posts. Pounding in t-posts and keeping them straight is a task in and of itself. But, we got it done. Between the cedar posts and t-posts, the fence will have good bones and should easily outlast my lifetime.

Once we finished pounding in the t-posts, we stretched several 330-foot rolls of welded wire fencing. As I noted in a previous post, our intent is not to keep anything in but rather to keep any pesky critters on the other side of the fence. We then topped the welded wire with a single strand of barbed wire.Fortunately, the weather was amazing. With forty-degree nights and seventy-degree days, we worked long hours with no problems. One of the best things about this final fencing trek was sitting around the campfire in the evenings. The night sky in Big Bend is indescribably beautiful. We mostly sat quiet and watched the flames dance under the Milky Way.

With the fencing completed, I am now turning my attention to some type of storage unit for the tools we need to keep at the property. It will be exciting to watch this next phase unfold. At this time I don’t know if we will purchase a unit or build one from scratch. Still researching and looking at the most cost-effective options.Our little sub-ranchette has already become a fun getaway destination. Cheryl and I are excited about watching this dream become reality. We are enjoying the journey. We know it will take time for all of this to happen but, in the meantime, we are having the time of our lives. We find ourselves talking a lot about the place and bouncing ideas off each other.

Thanks for following our adventure as our Dos Arbolitos story slowly unfolds. It will be fun to look back years from now and reflect on the journey. We want to make sure that we make lots of good memories that we will enjoy for a lifetime.